Mission Brief
Core Responsibilities
Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
As a Materials and Failure Analysis (MFA) Engineer at Shield AI, you will be responsible for driving failure analysis investigations and materials characterization activities for the XBAT vehicle. As part of the hardware reliability team, you’ll work closely with design, manufacturing, and supply chain to lead materials development, understand failure mechanisms, define corrective actions, and eliminate recurrence across product design, manufacturing processes, and supply chain sourcing. You will engage in hands-on lab work across instruments including SEM, EDS, X-ray, cross-section preparation, and optical microscopy, and outsource when capabilities are not available internally. You will be responsible for establishing SOPs and materials lab practices that enhance sample preparation and physicochemical materials characterization outputs to achieve top-quality investigation results. You will analyze metals, ceramics, polymers, and composite materials. The work you do will directly drive materials selection, materials processing, and design update decision-making for hardware designs across the vehicle.